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Boulder may be charged by county for jailing of municipal offenders

Sheriff says facility already overcrowded by those linked to more serious offenses

By Charlie Brennan, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
05/13/2014 05:09:20 PM MDT

Updated:
05/14/2014 07:34:05 AM MDT

Weston Halsey listens to the television with headphones while working on paperwork for his case in a cell block at the Boulder County Jail on Tuesday. The effective cap at the jail, Sheriff Joe Pelle says, is 500 inmates, and on Tuesday the population totaled 503. (Mark Leffingwell / Daily Camera)

The Boulder County sheriff said Tuesday that if the city of Boulder sends more municipal-level offenders to jail, there may be a price tag.

Sheriff Joe Pelle is scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon with the Board of County Commissioners to discuss jail crowding and related issues. The potential of additional crowding caused by jailing people whose only offense is a municipal code violation is a concern that's high on Pelle's list.

"What the law actually says is that a municipality may use the county jail for housing municipal prisoners with the consent of the county commissioners," Pelle said Tuesday.

"We want to make sure the commissioners know we're very crowded, that we are tracking the number of municipal-only prisoners that we have, and that if we have to start sending municipally sentenced inmates to other counties, Boulder County may wish to come to some kind of agreement with the city where the city picks up the cost.

"And I want to make sure that the City Council understands that it's not a foregone conclusion that they can send more and more people to the county jail."

'How does our community pay for it?'

The Boulder County Jail has 536 beds. Not all of them can be used at all times, however, due to the necessity of housing some inmates — because of security, behavioral or medical issues — apart from others. The effective cap, Pelle said, is 500, and on Tuesday the population totaled 503.

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Pelle said that on Friday, "We had to send five female inmates to Park County for outside prisoner boarding because we are very overcrowded in the women's module, and that number may increase as the summer goes on. The cost to us is $52 per inmate, per day."

Pelle emphasized that the current overcrowding at the jail is not caused by municipal-level offenders, of which his facility typically has just one or two on a daily basis. The current large population is reflective more of a traditional spring and summer spike that occurs.

"But our numbers are so tenuous in terms of overcrowding that any kind of increase at all sends us over the tipping point, and we have to start housing people in other places," Pelle said.

"It's really easy to say we're going to put somebody in jail. It's a lot more complicated when you look at the fact that we're out of jail space, and we're trying to save the jail space that we do have for the most serious offenders. You may pass a law, but how does our community pay for it?"

The Boulder City Council on March 18 gave unanimous, final approval to a suite of ordinances aimed at curbing what some have labeled "social misbehavior" on the municipal campus, including the lawn between the main Boulder Public Library and the Municipal Building, and in Central Park.

One of the ordinances reversed a change the City Council made in 2012 that had eliminated jail as an option for first-time offenders.

Additionally, earlier this month, the council voted unanimously to give initial approval to new panhandling restrictions, which would ban panhandling in areas where people might feel trapped or already have their wallets, out, such as at ATMs or parking pay stations. That ordinance is due for a public hearing and second vote June 3.

New alternative sentencing facility?

Boulder spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said Tuesday that Pelle had not yet made any direct requests to the city.

"If he does," Huntley said, "we will consider it in the context of taxes that city residents already pay to the county, as well as what is being asked of other municipalities and the county itself for similarly situated offenders."

Pelle countered that county jails are built, staffed and funded to hold violators of state criminal laws, and that in most Colorado counties, municipalities either have to pay for county housing of municipal offenders, or they have their own city jail. He cited Denver and Aurora as examples.

"I will have a hard-dollar cost this summer, if I have to start sending people to another county," Pelle said. "That is not budgeted right now."

Pelle also plans to talk to commissioners about the need he sees for a new alternative sentencing facility in the county, one that can accommodate those on work release or other programs not requiring full-time incarceration. Only a half-dozen of those offenders are typically in the county jail at a given time, due to a limit on the number of beds available for that use; but the list of those waiting for a spot, he said, runs roughly between 30 and 50, and the wait can last weeks.

A new, separate facility dedicated to alternative-sentencing clients, Pelle said, would free up more space in the existing jail for "secure housing needs."

Commissioners' spokeswoman Barb Halpin said the board typically meets with the sheriff once a year in advance of his submitting his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, and that the ramifications of additional municipal offenders being sent to jail was not the primary impetus for Wednesday's session.

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